June 22, 2016

Cross promotion ideas for YouTube

cross promotion ideas for youtube
In this article, we’ll be discussing a few different topics. We’ll start by explaining a few concepts, such as collaboration and cross-promotion, and then we’ll go over some great ways for you and other content creators to cross-promote one another to drive more traffic to your channels. Effective cross-promotion goes outside of YouTube, so you’ll see a few traditional marketing tips in this article, too. Once we’ve given you our best cross promotion ideas for YouTube, you can also stick around to learn more about succeeding on YouTube and meeting other content creators just like you. Let’s begin!

The Basics

What is cross-promotion?

Cross-promotion is usually when two brands do something to promote one another, though in this case it refers to creators. Many creators on YouTube on YouTube partake in cross-promotion and collaboration to share and grow one another’s audiences. YouTubers can also work with brands for sponsorships, though these are usually saved for larger channels or creators making usage of influencer marketing platforms. Mostly, though, creators are doing cross-promotion with other creators are a form of collaboration.

What is collaboration, and how can I benefit from it?

Collaboration is the act of two or more parties working together, and on YouTube that means multiple YouTube creators. Collaboration on YouTube comes in all kinds of different flavors: the cross promotion ideas for YouTube we’ve listed below are only some of them. To learn more about the importance of collaboration and how you can do it, read our article on the topic.

Cross Promotion Ideas For YouTube

Host each other’s content

A great way to cross-promote is by hosting the other channel’s video!
Your viewers will tune into the video thinking its yours, and be surprised to see and hear someone else. This is a perfect chance for the person you’re cross-promoting with to make a good impression, and if they do you’ve earned them another viewer at virtually no cost to yourself. If you two are both doing this at the same time, you can also expect to see some new viewers come your way, too! Of course, if you choose to do this, it’s smart to make sure that you two have compatible channels. If you both work in vastly different genres, working for different audiences, chances are this won’t help at all and will merely hurt both of you in the long run.

Use playlists for cross-promotion

Something similar to hosting their uploads is featuring their content on your channel with a playlist. By featuring their content on your channel, subscribers who browse you won’t just be exposed to your backlog of content: they’ll be exposed to theirs, too, and if your audience is compatible you will both benefit from this process. Of course, you can both feature each other on your channels through Featured Channels, but hosting videos and playlists still rank among the best cross promotion ideas for YouTube.

Shout each other out in videos or video descriptions

It’d be silly to miss out on the ability to shout each other out, especially if you’re both working on a similar topic. You two don’t necessarily need to work on a video together to do this, either. Say you’re working on a video that’s an in-depth exploration of a movie. The person you’re working with also happened to make content about that movie, and you enjoyed that content. Maybe it even influenced yours in some way! What you can do here is shout out their video within your own, or provide a link to their video in your video description as a list of sources/inspirations. This is a great, natural way to perform cross promotion. It’s most effective because a user isn’t going to think they’re being advertised to, they’re just going to see similar content to something they (presumably) already liked. Instead of trying to stuff an entirely new channel down their throat, you’re just offering them extra content to enjoy after they’re done with yours, and many people will appreciate this. This kind of relationship can go both ways, too, or be done with similar content released in the same time-frame. Be creative!

Promote each other on social media

We may be talking about cross promotion ideas for YouTube, but YouTubers themselves are known to operate outside of YouTube, too. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat all serve as places where content creators can interact directly with their audience. This is where you can mention a YouTuber you like, or share a video you found entertaining or interesting. If people like you enough to follow you on a social media outlet, chances are they’ll watch whatever you recommend, since their taste is similar to yours. Remember, you aren’t just on YouTube. You’re on the Internet, so you have to market across multiple lanes, sites and platforms, not just the one you’re producing content for.

Do guest blogging (if they have a site)

The last of our cross promotion ideas for YouTube might just seem alien to the YouTube you know. For you to do this one, the person you’re cross-promoting with has to have their own website, and it’s obviously even better if you have your own, too. Guest blogging is a time-honored tradition on the Internet, known to drive search results and popularity due to the way search engines work. This is also one of the ultimate forms of cross promotion ideas for YouTube, since it involves exposing an audience completely to the voice of the other. This form of cross promotion might be more effective for some channels than others. Channels with large followings that deal with technical content, for instance, might see a bigger benefit from guest blogging than smaller channels dealing with casual gaming or comedy.

Meeting People And Learning More

More about growing your YouTube channel

Your YouTube channel could always stand to grow, and looking to help it grow is probably why you’re here. Fortunately, you’re in the right place. Our blog is regularly updated with tips to help you grow your audience and your YouTube channel, with advice on topics like collaboration, influencer marketing, YouTube networks for small channels and more. This article was just cross promotion ideas for YouTube- you can bet we have more for you to learn!

How to meet people to collaborate and cross-promote with

In many of our articles, we stress the importance of meeting and working with other content creators. There’s no point in learning collaboration and cross-promotion tips if you don’t have anyone to do that with, and nowadays the YouTube ecosystem basically requires for niche YouTubers to work together to get big. In this massive crowd, how can you hope to find people that’ll work with you and allow you to take advantage of the advice we’re giving? Fortunately, we have a solution for that, too. Here at Grin, we maintan and develop our free app. Its sole purpose is to help you discover other YouTube creators just like you, ones who are looking for collabs, cross-promos, friends and feedback. Grin doesn’t cost you a cent- we’re just here to help YouTube creators find each other and work together.